Cullen: Five Years

For fans of Ian Rankin, Stuart McBride and Christopher Brookmyre, CULLEN: FIVE YEARS combines the second four novels featuring ambitious maverick Detective Sergeant Scott Cullen, whose series has set the bestseller charts alight.

COPS AND ROBBERS
A body found under ancient Edinburgh. A hidden serial killer.

Things are finally going well for Acting DS Scott Cullen. He’s just moved in with his girlfriend and, thanks to a merger at work, the promotion he craves is almost in reach. Just so long as he can keep out of trouble…

Then the severely decomposed body of a man is found amid the labyrinthine alleyways of Edinburgh’s Old Town; he has a screwdriver through his heart. The investigation leads Scott to unsettled scores in the music industry, where bands and their bitter rivalries might just have turned murderous.

Suddenly things aren’t looking so good. Cullen’s relationship takes an alarming turn, just as the unsolved case begins to weigh heavily on him. Scott’s maverick tactics have helped him in the past, but will they come back to haunt him – and put others in danger?

Previously published as Bottleneck

LIARS AND THIEVES
A novel in two parts.

In "Christmas Steps", Detective Constable Scott Cullen investigates the gruesome murder of a businessman on a cold Christmas Eve in Edinburgh.

Then in "Windchill", Cullen's peaceful return from holiday is scuppered when the body of a barman is found with a knife in his gut. What seems to be a straightforward case of violent jealousy soon reveals itself to have much darker links; revelations of mounting debts, out of control gambling and organised crime lead to the discovery of another body.

With the carrot of promotion dangled in front of him, Cullen sets out to solve the murders, but can he untangle the web?

Previously published as Windchill

COWBOYS AND INDIANS
With a series of male rapes around Edinburgh puzzling police, a bloodied corpse is found in the shadow of Edinburgh’s Dean Bridge, half-naked and battered. Who is he? Did he fall or was he pushed? And why is he handcuffed?

As the victim is identified, the case only gets murkier. Detective Sergeant Scott Cullen of Police Scotland’s Edinburgh Major Investigation Team is sucked into the depths of the city’s lucrative financial services sector, facing up to some old enemies and creating some new ones. Just months into his new role, Cullen is torn by the trials of a management role, putting a friendship on the line.

As new leads take them no further forward, with far too many suspects, Cullen must conquer a world where nobody trusts anyone and all are out for themselves. Can he catch a killer who could be anyone?

HEROES AND VILLAINS
After a previous case got him sidelined to a drugs investigation, DS Scott Cullen of Police Scotland's Edinburgh MIT closes in on a long-time adversary. Dean Vardy, Edinburgh’s latest drug kingpin, and notorious rapist. Every time they close in on him, he gets off, aided and abetted by his lawyer, Campbell McLintock. But this time Vardy goes too far.

Or does he? After a witness dies, Cullen is soon desperately trying to hold the case together, with Vardy’s conviction dangling by a thread. Will McLintock get Vardy off yet again?

But soon, Cullen and his team are facing a different threat. A brutal vigilante, doling out frontier justice and obeying no laws. Can Cullen catch a killer who could be one of their own?

‘Classic Scottish noir: bad food, bad moods, too much booze and tight plots’ @ey0k1, Twitter


Genre: Mystery